Indio (Were Zoo #24)

Chapter 1

Reagan clipped an orange blossom—a symbol of happily ever afters—and tried not to think about the irony of it all.

She didn’t even have a plus-one for her bestie Rhomi’s baby shower, let alone a happily ever after.

She’d never been one to wallow in her feelings too much, but after Rhomi had found her Mr. Right, she wondered when she’d meet her own Mr. Right.

Or if she would even get one. Her mother didn’t believe in true love or happily ever afters, and while Reagan didn’t consider herself a Debbie Downer, she tended to have a non-rosy outlook on love.

Love at first sight certainly happened, but she didn’t think it would happen to her.

Hell, she couldn’t even remember the last time a guy had set her heart fluttering and made her feel irresistible. She really did want what Rhomi had: a guy who looked at her like he couldn’t breathe right when they weren’t together. A guy who stayed .

But then her mother’s voice pinged in her ear like a message alert. Men leave.

Reagan shoved the unwanted thoughts into the far corner of her mind and checked her watch.

She still needed to head home and grab the big bow for her baby shower gift and then pick it up at the store before heading to the Amazing Adventures Safari Park, where Rhomi and her boyfriend, Mercer, lived and worked.

Reagan had been there when Rhomi and Mercer met. It was a meet-cute for the ages, and one that she’d secretly envied.

She stood up and stretched the kink out of her back, then left one of the greenhouses of Belle Terra Botanical Gardens, where she worked in the gift shop as a cashier and helped with holiday decorating.

She wasn’t working until Monday, but her boss had let her come in and pick flowers for the baby shower, and she’d been excited to put some pretty arrangements together with tropical florals for the jungle-themed party.

Rhomi and Mercer weren’t going to find out what they were having until the baby showed up in person, so the party was neutral—baby animals, soft browns and greens, and lots of florals.

She’d picked orange blossoms for the pop of color, birds of paradise because they were cool-looking, and now she was heading into the greenhouse that held other tropical plants.

After cutting monstera leaves, palm fronds, and ferns to fill out the flowers she’d already gathered, she stopped by the gift shop to thank her boss for the flowers and drop off the shears she’d borrowed.

She drove to the little house that had been her grandma’s, which Reagan had moved into when she passed away a few years ago.

The small home had two bedrooms and a tiny back patio that backed up to a wooded area.

There weren’t many homes on the street that was just inside the town limits of Cedar Hill, but her closest neighbor—Darla—had been her grandma’s best friend and Reagan liked to check in on her from time to time.

A quick shower later, and Reagan had tucked her strawberry blonde hair into a braid tied with a pale green ribbon that matched her dress, grabbed the box of flower arrangements, and loaded them into her car.

“Hello, dear!” Darla called from her front porch. “Today is the day?”

“Yeah,” Reagan said, smiling at her elderly friend. She walked over and gave her a hug and a bird of paradise. “I have to grab the crib.”

“Here, this is for your friend,” Darla said, handing over a brown paper-wrapped package with a twine bow. “I made it in the neutral colors you told me about.”

“Is this a baby blanket?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling proudly. “I found my knitting needles a few months ago when you told me about your friend’s pregnancy. Tell her I wish her the very best.”

Reagan gave her another hug. “Thank you, I sure will. I’m off! I’ll be back with leftovers from the party.”

“I can’t wait.”

Reagan hurried back to her car and set the package on the front seat. Then she sent a quick message to Darcy to let her know she was on the way after one more stop.

As she headed to the store to pick up the crib, her phone buzzed and she answered it on speaker.

“Hi, Reagan,” her mom said.

“Hi, Mom. What’s up?”

“Just checking in on you.”

“I’m good. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine, but I’m not the one whose friend is in a relationship and having a baby. I just wanted to check in on you.”

Reagan stifled the sigh. Saying her mom didn’t trust men was a vast understatement.

After her father left when Reagan was a child, her mom had never been the same.

She didn’t move on as her dad had, finding love and starting a family that Reagan had zero contact with.

She just sat in her bitterness and tried to infect everyone around her.

Reagan could admit to feeling a similar kind of way about men because of what her dad had done to them, but there was a tiny part of her that thought maybe there would be a happily ever after for her. Out there, somewhere.

“Mom, I’m very happy for Rhomi. She’s positively glowing and Mercer is a great guy.”

“Well,” her mom said with a sniff, “she may have found a rare man, but make no mistake, he would be a unicorn. Men leave, it’s just what they do. And you’d do good to remember that, when you’re around all the romance and love today. Baby showers make people think that happy futures exist.”

“I think they do, Mom. Just because Dad left, doesn’t mean that every guy leaves.”

“Oh? When was the last time you had more than a couple dates with a guy?”

Ouch.

“Mom. Seriously.” Reagan’s exasperation rose. “Can we not right now? I’m on my way to celebrate my best friend’s baby. I’m not thinking about finding a man.”

Which was true but not true. She was wondering what her future looked like.

But she wasn’t trying to dwell on it. Somehow, her mother had a kind of emotional radar that seemed to sense when Reagan was in a good mood or feeling positive.

Then she’d show up like an anti-hero and shoot holes in all those good feelings.

Her mom always made her feel so defeated.

“Oh, honey, don’t worry. You can be happy alone.”

“Holy crap.” She shook her head and pulled to a stop in the pickup lane at the store. “Mom, I have to go. If there’s nothing else?”

“Just try to have a good time at the party and give Rhomi a hug for me.”

“I will. Bye.”

She ended the call and lowered her head to the steering wheel for a long moment.

Geez, her mom could really do a number on her mood.

She shook off the words like a jacket she didn’t need and opened the app to alert the store staff she was there for the crib.

She’d focus on the baby shower and not worry about anything else.

After all, what were the odds she’d even meet any single guys at a baby shower?

Once she had the crib and had stuck the big, fluffy bow on the box, she headed to the safari park. She hung a left at the entrance and stopped at a security booth around a fenced area marked for employees only.

A man inside the booth greeted her.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

She handed over her license and the baby shower invite. “I’m Reagan, a friend of Rhomi’s. Her boyfriend, Mercer, told me to park in the employee lot and that someone had left a dolly for me for the crib in the back.”

He smiled and handed her back her things. “Hi, Reagan. Welcome to the park. Mercer told us you were coming, and I saw the dolly at the gate. I’ll meet you back there and unlock it for you.”

“Thanks.”

She found a parking spot and turned off the engine, popping the back gate.

She heard the rumble of wheels and saw the guy from the security booth.

“I’m Alfie, by the way,” he said as he stopped next to her car. “I’m on the security team.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said. She reached for the crib box, but he put up his hand, easily pulling it from the car and setting it on the dolly. “Wow, thanks.”

“No problem. Do you need a hand wheeling it to the party location?”

“No, thank you. I was here yesterday with our other friend Darcy, so I know where I’m going.”

After she put the box of flower arrangements on top of the crib on the dolly, she walked with him as he pulled the dolly to the gate that led into the park and unlocked it with a code. He held the door for her and she pulled the dolly through.

“Have fun, Reagan.”

“Thanks, Alfie.”

He smiled, a dimple forming in his cheek, and strode off. She watched him for a moment as the gate swung closed, thinking he was pretty cute, then she turned her attention to the task at hand.

The baby shower was in an old botanical garden exhibit that had been relatively forgotten after a storm had damaged the glass roof.

The park owners had been clearing space for a new bakery and café that was going up near the safari tour entrance and had discovered the small building.

After clearing it out and cleaning it up, they’d been able to save some of the plants.

It was a pretty cool building, and since she really did love plants after working at the gardens for such a long time, she could see how a botanical garden with a jungle theme really did fit into the park.

“Hi, Darcy,” she said when she opened the door to the building. “I had to get a different crib than the one we ordered—oh, hi! Who is this?”

She saw a good-looking guy standing near Darcy as they worked on decorations.

“Hey, girl,” Darcy said. “This is my new friend, Ford. Do you remember Sera? We met her earlier when she and her boyfriend, Caesar, came by to check on the shower planning.”

“Sure.”

“Sera is Ford’s friend Fallon’s mom, and he came with Fallon and her boyfriend, Avi, here for a visit. I snagged him to help. This is my bestie, Reagan.”

Ford smiled and greeted her.

Reagan couldn’t help but notice the heat between the two.

“It’s nice to meet you too. It looks great in here, thanks for helping.”

“Happy to,” he said. “Is there anything else I can help with?

After Darcy praised him for helping at a record pace with fifteen minutes to spare until Rhomi showed up for the party, she followed him out of the building and left Reagan alone.

Reagan hummed. Had she just witnessed another meet-cute at the park? This place must be magic.

She pulled the dolly through the building to the gift table, thankful for the humidity control that took the chill out of the air and made it quite warm.

She put the floral arrangements on the tables and tucked the crib under the gift table so it was out of the way, then looked around.

The place looked amazing. An arch of balloons in shades of beige, peach, and green sat behind the guest of honor’s chair.

Round tables were set up amid the winding stone paths.

A manmade waterfall lent a realistic jungle vibe, as did the plants that had been saved: banana trees, potted ficus, and a few she couldn’t identify.

Darcy walked back into the building and Reagan turned to face her.

Her cheeks were pink. Her eyes dancing.

When the door shut, the two simultaneously giggled and squealed, meeting in the center for a hug.

“Holy crap!” Reagan said. “Tell me everything!”

“Well, it all happened when I almost dropped the cupcakes…”